R8000 has two Mac IDs

[Jo_Neri]

I recently acquired a Nighthawk X6 R8000 router and connected to my fibre to home conection.

I noticed something peculiar.

The Mac ID of my Router is indicated as 2c:30:33:d2:8c:f1. Ever since I installed this router I noticed an increased data usage.

When I check the usage log on fibre ISP I noticed that the Mac ID of the connection was reflected as 2c:30:33:d2:8c:f2.

When I checked the router setup I observed that 2c:30:33:d2:8c:f2 is shown as the Mac ID of the internet port, ?? 2c:30:33:d2:8c:f1 is the Mac Id of teh router.

I am a rookie and a bit confused. How are there two Mac Ids for this router ?

Looking forward to an explanation.

Regds

Jo Neri

[TheEther · Accepted solution]

MAC addresses are tied to interfaces.  Therefore, it's normal for a router to have multiple MAC addresses.

[StephenB]

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@Jo_Neri wrote:

The Mac ID of my Router is indicated as 2c:30:33:d2:8c:f1.

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Is this on a label on the router?  Or are you seeing this mac address on a screen somewhere?  

[Jo_Neri]

Hello Stephen

The 2c:30:33:d2:8c:f1. Mac Id is on the label of the router. It also shows under the Router information in "Advanced"

The 2c:30:33:d2:8c:f2 Mac Id is reflected in the "Internet Port" in 'Advanced'  and also reflects as the log in Mac Id on my ISP logs.

Regds

Jo

[TheEther · Accepted solution]

MAC addresses are tied to interfaces.  Therefore, it's normal for a router to have multiple MAC addresses.

[StephenB]

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@Jo_Neri wrote:

The 2c:30:33:d2:8c:f1. Mac Id is on the label of the router. It also shows under the Router information in "Advanced"

The 2c:30:33:d2:8c:f2 Mac Id is reflected in the "Internet Port" in 'Advanced'  and also reflects as the log in Mac Id on my ISP logs.

TheEther is of course correct.  The Router information on the top left of the "advanced home" page shows the mac address of the router's LAN ports.  The internet port is the WAN port mac address.

So this is perfectly normal.